On behalf of the Politburo, Tran Cam Tu, Permanent Secretary of the Secretariat, signed Conclusion No. 114-KL/TW on November 3, 2026. The directive focuses on continuing to perfect the state management apparatus for food safety by consolidating authority under a single focal point from the central to local levels.
The conclusion noted that during its September 18, 2026 meeting, the Politburo reviewed a report from the Government Party Committee and approved the policy to streamline food safety management. The initiative aims to unify management oversight while ensuring clear functions, tasks, authority, and responsibilities across all levels of government.
The Politburo affirmed that food safety is one of the issues directly related to human health, population quality, labor productivity and the country's sustainable development. In the context of deep international integration, climate change, the rapid development of food technology, e-commerce and global supply chains, food safety management requires a modern, unified, comprehensive and science-based management model.
According to the conclusion, the Politburo calls for modernizing food safety management to align with international standards and best practices. The directive emphasizes a shift from pre-inspection to risk-based post inspection, moving away from sector-by-sector management to end-to-end supply chain oversight. This approach prioritizes full traceability, early warning systems, and risk control managed through a centralized and interconnected database network.
Regarding the orientation to streamline the state management apparatus, the conclusion explicitly directs the termination of food safety management functions previously handled by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Simultaneously, the Department of Food Safety under the Ministry of Health will be reorganized to absorb all original functions, tasks, personnel, records, documents, facilities, and operational resources from both ministries. This reorganized body will serve as the core advisory agency assisting the Minister of Health in exercising state management and enforcing laws on food safety across the entire supply chain for all food products.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and the Ministry of Industry and Trade will continue performing specialized management tasks within their assigned scope, while coordinating closely with the Ministry of Health to review and refine institutions, policies, legal frameworks, and implementation procedures.
At the provincial level, a unified food safety department will be established under the health departments of provinces and centrally run cities. The specialized socio-cultural agency under people's committees in communes will serve as the focal point for food safety management, with civil servants holding appropriate expertise assigned to oversee the domain.
